By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
The Croatian basketball legend Dino Radja who was inducted into the 2018 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame class, has also been present for the Basketball Without Borders (BWB) camp in Belgrade, Serbia.
As someone who won numerous trophies and individual honors both with clubs and national teams, the most important thing he wants to ‘carve’ into the future players attending the BWB is – ‘Don’t do it for the money’:
“It’s a bad influence for the players whose head isn’t straight. Once you start playing for the money, you failed as a player. You may have made a profit but you’ll gamble that away too, since you don’t appreciate the way you got there. The one who is pushed forward by success, he’s got the chance to earn cash. Money is like dust on a highway. A car passes by and lifts it. You can’t recollect it afterward.”, Radja shared during the BWB, per Basketballsphere.
And the talk about the money problem continued. Although there is much more of it [money] in basketball compared to when he was playing, the once successful clubs from former Yugoslavia including his hometown Split are struggling. And that’s an understatement:
“There aren’t any [clubs]. It’s all about the damn money. The one who’s got it [money], takes everything and pays no attention to anything else. All those clubs that don’t have a private owner are struggling. No money. Politics run the club.”
But the world turns, the talent eventually finds a way to prevail and Radja believes that the European basketball has come ever closer to the NBA and that the trend will continue:
“The gap has decreased. There are a lot of players in the NBA from Europe and they have an important role. Some top EuroLeague teams could comfortably play in the NBA and not be a ‘kicking bucket’.”